This report attempts a systematic presentation of the public administration reforms (PAR) in the EU Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Its objective is to create a meaningful measurement tool for PAR in the ENP/EaP policy framework, specifically the Public Administration Reform Panel under the EaP thematic Platform 1 “Democracy, Good Governance and Stability”.
The European integration process has direct implications for public administration reform process. While there is no common body of the EU legislation to regulate the functioning of public governance, the historical experience of the most recent EU enlargements has crystallized the so called European principles of public administration, which countries need to follow in order to approximate EU standards. The European principles of public administration can be applied to individual countries, or economies, regardless of whether or not they seek EU membership.
The report monitors the progress made by countries in establishing the European principles of public administration in their national administrative law systems, as well as the way these principles are adhered to in practice. This is shown in the report on the basis of indicators available in renowned international databases (such as Worldwide Governance Indicators, e-Government Index and others), which are arranged in the special way to highlight each of the European principles. Besides, the report offers six country-by-country assessments for each EU Eastern Partner.
This report compares progress of the public administration reform in the six countries of the EU Eastern Partnership, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, in the context of upgrading their contractual relations (except for the moment Belarus) to a political association with the EU. Its purpose is to see if and how the European principles of public administration – legal certainty, openness and transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness – are observed in legislation and practice of the EU Eastern Partners. By using a specially designed set of indicators from internationally renowned databases, the report offers comparable conclusions on both how each European principle is being followed in the EaP region and what trends in public administration reform can be observed in individual countries from the perspective of their European integration.
Download full report:
Public Administration in EU Eastern Partner Countries: Comparative Report 2011
Publication is made in the frameworks of Estonian Center of Eastern Partnerhip
The ECEAP forms a network of researchers focusing on the Eastern
Partnership. The researchers will publish policy papers on the
topic under the online publication of Eastern Partnership Review on the ECEAP's website.
